Christmas

So it is the Christmas season and I was having a really hard time getting into the spirit. So the other night Jon helped me set up our nativity set that we got from Jerusalem. I also put up all the random decorations we had to make it feel more cheery and Christmasy.

Ornaments in a dish since we don't have a tree.

I guess I sort of treated our TV like a Christmas tree. So....its our Christmas TV. The cutout in the middle my mom made for us....I can't remember which Christmas, but I love it. It is so intricate. the picture on the right are ornaments that are nostalgic to me of my childhood.

Last year I made Jon dental ornaments. Floss, toothbrush,.....and yes toothpaste. The toothpaste one is kind of gross, but I still like it. I just remember spending hours and hours doing this project, so I wanted to put them up for at least one more year.

I even kind of hung up our stockings....even though Santa will need to follow us to Utah.

Our ward had a Christmas part and Santa came. All the kids gathered around. It was really fun and nice to be with the whole ward.....singing Christmas songs and eating food.

Hanging out

A while back Taija and Brady had some friends over to see their place. This always seems to happen when we all hang out. The wives in one corner chit chatting and the husbands in the other corner......playing wii.

The Maxfield's apartment is so nice. It is more like a condo. It feels so big and spacious like a real house.....apposed to our little apartments in Aldea. I am jealous......although not of the drive and parking situation.

BYU vs Utah

So a bunch of us went to a sports bar in the city to watch the BYU vs Utah game. Boy....that was disappointing! It was fun though to hang out with friends!

Jon, Diana, Kristine, and Jason Couch

Socks

I love socks!!! I have had a $25.00 gift certificate to Macy's since my birthday in may. Macy's had a sale and so I finally decided to use it. I think I spent about three hours in the department store deciding what to spend my $25.00 on. I finally decided on a bunch of really fun socks. Why were white plain socks when you can wear happy colorful ones!



I am very happy about my purchase....and thanks to whoever it was that gave me the card. I can't remember now. Sorry.

Raccoon

There is this racoon that always hangs around our apartment. I think he looks really cute. He acts so tame......I still would never get too close. He totally just meanders around the area.

This isn't a very good picture. The raccoon is in between the bush and the bench.

Protesters at Church

I wanted to wait until the whole prop 8 thing had settled down a bit before I posted this. Living in San Francisco during this time has been a really interesting experience. After prop 8 passed we had protesters at our church. It was kind of exciting you could hear them yelling and chanting outside while we were in our meetings.

They were all actually very nice and weren't saying nasty things or anything. There message was more of Love than it was against Mormons.

I am mainly posting this for friends and family at home. I know mom you were kind of curious about this.

Adventure Race

Dave Parker and Jeff Peterson in our ward set up an adventure race. Everybody choose one other person to be on their team and then they had to run/bike around Golden Gate Park to certain destinations in a certain amount of time. Whichever team made it to the most destinations within the allotted time, won.

Jon and Mark were teammates. We all had to be there really early on Saturday....it was freezing! Everybody got maps and had a few minutes to decide which route they were going to take. The first part of the race was running. Then they had to meet back where they started and get their bikes.

Jim Tilton........Dave Parker (I think).....Jon and Mark ....running back to get their bikes after running for an hour.

They looked at their bike route for a few seconds and then were off again.



They looked so tired and still had another hour left to go!

Yipeee they made it. They made it back with one minute literally to spare. I can't remember but it was like every minute you were over the hour you got a penalty.

Like I said it was freezing. Lisa (Mark's wife )and I tried to keep warm while we were waiting for our men to get back.

Jon and Mark won!!!! Here they are with their "goo" medals. Jon already ate his.

Here is the whole group that did the race.

I think Mark almost died after the race......Somehow Jon always gets a muddy face when he is on his bike. How cute Jon was sharing his camel back water with mark.

Mmmmmmm...I love hugging a sweaty Jon.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving Jon and I went to Sonoma to Bekah Paredes parent's house who are currrently in Hawaii. So basically we had the whole house to ourselves! We spent the weekend with some of our great friends Bekah and Kyle Paredes, Anisha and Ben Ellsworth, and Bekah and Grayson Palmer



Sonoma/Napa was sooooo beautiful! I was driving and couldn't help myself from sticking the camera out the window and taking some random shots (without taking my eyes off the road, don't worry!). Look how gorgeous and green it is with all the grapevines! I love it here!

It actually really felt like fall because the grapevine leaves were changing color. Well...I guess it is winter. I can't tell because I always used to rely on the snow.



I woke up early on Thurdsay becuase I could hear Kyle wrestling with the turkey. He was having a hard time getting the wire off the legs? I have no idea. I haven't ever seen I turkey that wasn't already cooked. So then Jon got in there and they were both able to finally get the legs loose.

Bekah and Anisha...Jon...Bekah, me, and Anisha

Here we all are preparing for our scrumptious thanksgiving meal. This is the first time I have had thanskgiving without family!

In the middle..Jon is making the mashed potatoes. He made a whole bag!



I made the best fruit salad....it was deliciouse of course.

It was so fun because Bekah and Kyle set the table all fancy-smanshy like. It felt so festive! Once the meal started, it was crazy. There was nothing civilized about it. People were passing plates all over the place....over people and under. I can't believe nobody ever dropped any food!

I took a picture of the fruit salad because I made it. Anisha made the sweet potatoes with marshmallows (I think that was my favorite part of the meal! Good job Anisha.) and the delicious pies....because they were so delicious and I want to remember them forever!

My food......first round.

Jon and Grayson dug the wishbone and tried, unsuccessfully to break it. Little did they know that it is very bendy before it is dried out. No breaking that!

Later that night Bekah and Kyle worked the wishbone and Kyle was the lucky/skilled one.

There was a whole lot of playing on the Wii this vacation. It was really fun. Anisha, Me, and Jon playing/trying to play Mariocart. I don't like that game because I am always falling off of things. Then it went to guitar hero with Bekah and Grayson. Then at some point Anisha and Bekah sang karaoke...High School Musical....I'll just leave it at that.

When Anisha first started playing guitar hero, it was a joint effort where I would strum and she would hit the buttons......and then.......by the end of thanksgiving vacation she was rocking out on her own.



Paying Wii makes me really tired.

We went on a walk around Sonoma. It is so peaceful.....nothing like SF.

Jon playing with the dogs. Riley and Pukah. Riley is Beka and Kyle's dog and Pukah is Bekah's parents dog.